All Questions

The NASA Glen Research Center tutorial page Rocket Thrust Equation links to the General Thrust Equation page which starts with: Which transcribes into MathJax as: $ \ \ \ F = \dot{m}_e V_e - \...

With all the fanfare about BepiColombo (mine included) I didn't realize that there were two spacecraft on this launch. From Spaceflight Now's Ariane 5 launches two satellites on 7-year voyage to ...

Voyager's Golden record was recorded in an analog way. Its lifespan perhaps 1 billion years. Let's say that I would like to send an spacecraft with information recorded in digital. Which alternatives ...

I have learnt that the reason for no life existing on Mars was due to absence of a magnetic field strong enough to ward off incoming solar radiation. We could just instate an artificial one if that ...

Here is a question from ANTHE: an exam in India. The question is:Two point masses M and 3M are placed at a L distance apart. Another point mass m is between on the line joining them so that the net ...

Speaking of "all things OSIRIS" I just ran across the OSIRIS optical communications system for cubesats and smallsats. OSIRIS (Optical Space Infrared Downlink System) highly compact optical ...

I am passionate in achieving a career in Planetary Science. I have a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering background with an average academic record. I want to pursue a career in Planetary ...

I found the Cody's Lab videos from Scott Manley's video as described in this answer. Browsing through I learned from the first 30 seconds of Hot Wax Bottle? that the phase change of wax was used on ...

If we were to terraform Mars would Mars slowly lose its water i.e., some of the water would sink deep into the dry Martian crust or combine with other elements in the soil? Mars has been dry for ...

This four-minute BBC podcast Mission to Mercury: BepiColombo spacecraft ready for launch highlights several challenges of the BepiColombo mission, including its orbital-mechanical aspects and is worth ...

Cassini's final flyby of Titan in April 2017 sealed it's fate in September of that year. This is described further in answers to What force is bringing Cassini down into Saturn's atmosphere in another ...

Sir Arthur C. Clarke was a science writer as well as a prolific writer of science fiction (including hard SF*), and his stories usually had a substantial footing in science. His book Rendezvous with ...

If I understand correctly, it wasn't done because it's very expensive ($ per lbs) and there are no launch systems powerful enough for that? Also, could you please provide formulas and calculations? I ...

Why not consider the Kármán line as a curved one that follows the curvature of the Earth ? According to Wikipedia's article about the Kármán line: The Kármán line is the altitude where the speed ...

As one of the difficulties in engine design is to prevent it from melting, one can expect research to be conducted on what materials to use for thrust chamber and nozzle. Many engines seem to use ...

Is "chamber pressure" the pressure at the tip of the injector, or the pressure before combustion inside the chamber, or the pressure after combustion inside the chamber?

A transponder amplifies, (often) frequency-shifts, and rebroadcasts a received signal. Old-style telephone and TV distribution satellites in GEO used simple transponders to rebroadcast the uplinked ...

This interesting answer to the question Do antenna farms on spacecraft make any sense or are they purely aesthetic? in Worldbuilding SE links to the NASA Ames page 'Borg' Computer Collective Designs ...

The Space.com article How NASA Mars Lander's 'Steampunk' Claw Will Work (Video) says: InSight's mission aims to provide a detailed look at Mars' interior structure and composition. The lander ...

There was a picture in this question about space debris on shore. Seems to be a part of a Falcon 9. The round stickers are used for temperature control. Similar labels are sold by some companies, for ...

Let's assume problems of running sustained nuclear fusion are overcome (be it by making the mechanism highly energy-positive, or just supplying all the energy deficit externally, like beamed power.) ...

In the Apollo moon missions when the LEM returned to the CSM, which astronaut performed the docking procedure? Did the command module pilot just hold a fixed position while the astronaut flying the ...

In 2016 a large ice deposit has been found within the Utopia Planitia region on Mars by the SHARAD instrument on board of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The thickness of the deposit ranges from 80 ...

While reading an article about a possible "Cloud City" on Venus I was taken by the following statement: Venus’s atmosphere is mainly carbon dioxide and thick clouds of sulfuric acid cover the ...

Is there any mach number range (say 0.8-1.4) where the maximum Q of the rocket should occur?

This comment links to this collectspace.com post: Three business executives vacationing (?) in the Bahamas came across part of a SpaceX Falcon 9 fairing that washed ashore. They shared their find ...

Following the recent mishap with the Soyuz, Kazakhstan's deputy minister for defense and the aerospace industry said that about 22 tons of fuel (kerosene and liquid oxygen) were dumped/fell over the ...

The following is taken from Sinha & Rral , 2015: "NASA's Curiosity rover has the capability to search for organic compounds and to identify the chemical and isotopic composition of the Martian ...

I'm using GMAT (R2018a) software for orbital propagation and now testing the atmospheric drag. There are only 2 options: JacciaRoberts and MSISE90. Is there a way to add NRLMSISE00 to the options? ...

This answer here mentions the STS-94's ability to gimbal up to 20 degrees in all directions, that got me thinking, what exactly is the maximum ever feasibly implemented? I've seen a lot of information ...

Let's imagine that, for some arbitrary reason, solid-fuel rocket stages were needed and built en masse in factories, like planes or even like cars. How much would it drive down the cost of an ...

I’ve a question for any trajectory experts out there: The Pioneer and Voyager probes discovered new moons during their flybys of our four giant planets (and indeed rings). These didn’t come as much ...

I've been looking at of the STS-94 skylab launch and other launching involving asymmetrical rocket launch vehicles, mostly because I've never been able to design something similar in KSP with ...

Have there been any proposals to launch a "space station" type of assembly into LEO, then send up some engines to get it to be able to move again? Take for instance something akin to the ISS, but much ...

Looking for the atmospheric parameters (density for example) and vehicle parameters (CL for example) as well as formulae that were used in the original calculation. Primary sources strongly preferred,...

This interesting, archived page https://www.webcitation.org/618QHms8h?url=http://www.fai.org/astronautics/100km.asp which I found in this answer, says: Later in the same decade (or very early in ...

This interesting, archived page https://www.webcitation.org/618QHms8h?url=http://www.fai.org/astronautics/100km.asp which I found in this answer, says: In the early 1960´s, the U.S. X-15 Aircraft ...

I know that SpaceX's Falcon uses TEA-TEB instead of a physical igniter, but if I remember correctly, NASA has never used hypergolic propellants to start their restart-able engines. How does NASA's (or ...

A comment on the currently unanswered question Is there an authoritative catalog for rocket launch identifiers? led me to this Github page which links to r/spacexlounge on which currently appears a ...

I'm developing the numerical orbital propagator. I've already implemented the Newtonian gravity (Earth, Sun, Moon), Earth harmonics, SRP and relativistic effect. The software is compared with GMAT ...

Rocket engines are a huge weight in a multi-stage rocket. and they are stacked like so: Fairing/Payload Fuel Engine -- Seperator -- Fuel Engine and so on, which means multiple engines. Is there ...

How precise can an artificial satellite be when it comes to following the exact orbit in relation to Earth or hitting the same point above Earth in orbit? Which orbit would be the most stable for this?...

Is it 7660 m/s or (7660-460)m/s? If it is the former then the ISS orbits about the Earth at 8120 m/s. I think it should be (7660-460)m/s relative to ground based on this orbital period formula, $$T=...

I've been really interested in NASA's Mars helicopter and have been reading bits of articles on that recently. But I have a few questions I hope people can help me understand — in this article, it ...

I am seeing a lot of references to the “ballistic reentry” mode of the crew return vehicle in relation to the abort during the powered ascent stage. In partiulat, the recent crewed Soyuz MS-10 abort ...

What orbit would follow the polar cusp in the magnetosphere demonstrated in the picture below in red? What altitude would be needed to stay in the polar cusp following the Sun?

This answer to the question Why does the ISS have to be destroyed? begins It doesn't, not really, but there will come a time when it will simply not be worth keeping it up. and mentions a study, ...

The ISS is nearing its final years and this question spurred me to ask a follow up. Let's say that the various countries grab whatever equipment/modules they provided in assembly and the ISS is ...

When was the ISS's "SPEED LIMIT 17500 MPH" sign originally posted? above: "STS110-353-012 (8-19 April 2002) --- Astronaut Ellen Ochoa, STS-110 mission specialist, poses by the speed limit signs in ...

According to: ”Moreover, the ISS end of life might come in 2025, and assuming you need a few years to graduate, more to get a degree, work experience, get hired, do the training... The ISS might ...